LAWSON-REMER BRINGS EXPERIENCE BACK HOME
After years in global affairs, supervisor focuses on S.D.
In 1994, thousands of California high school students walked out of school in protest over Proposition 187, a discriminatory measure that targeted undocumented immigrants.
Terra Lawson-Remer, a La Jolla High junior, was among those students. President of her class, Lawson-Remer helped organize the walkout there and in response school administrators stripped her of her title.
For a straight-A student who played three varsity sports, getting in trouble felt like a big deal at the time, said Lawson-Remer during a recent interview. In reality, though, it proved to be a transformative experience for the third-generation San Diegan, who in January will be sworn in as the next District 3 San Diego County supervisor.
Lawson-Remer is the third person in six years to
represent the swing district, which includes part of San Diego and the cities of Encinitas, Escondido, Solana Beach and Del Mar.
She said she learned from that high school experience that “sometimes you stand up and do the right thing and still get in trouble; you just have to be prepared to pay the consequences.”
She also learned about the power of civil disobedience and collective action. Her peers — many of whom weren’t involved in the original protest — became angry about the school’s reaction and started an ultimately successful drive to get her reinstated as class president.
“I saw that there was a
power and consequence of me doing the right thing, but also you can then be a catalyst for other people who weren’t even paying attention,” Lawson-Remer said. “Some of them may not have even known what Prop. 187 was, but now the whole school was galvanized around it.”